HOLLY NADLER

508-274-2329

(hollynadler@gmail.com)

Let us be truly thankful for the restaurants of Oak Bluffs. Not only do they increase and flourish like lilies of the field, they’re still open! In the beginning was the Word and the Word was that it was very dark on Circuit avenue at this time of year. The Christmas tree lighting in Post Office Square took place in a cold dark place of surrounding shadows. Participants would shiver through the ceremony, then stagger like penguins through the snow to the Atlantic Connection for mugs of hot chocolate. It felt as if we were assembling a team at the base camp below Everest.

Now we’ve got, starting at the top of Circuit, Thai Cuisine. This pretty little restaurant, blue with yellow trim, has tables in the front windows where diners can nibble on pad Thai while friends and neighbors wave at them from the sidewalk.

Next door the posh Sweet Life is closed for the season, but after you’ve hosted President Obama for dinner in the summer, your triumph is so complete, you need to go sprawl on a tropical beach to fully recover (my apologies in advance to the owners if I’m getting this wrong, if, in fact, they’re laboring over textbooks in a sweaty apartment in Cambridge, working on masters degrees in, oh, quantum mechanics?)

Next comes Good Ship Lollipop which, while not a restaurant per se, has undoubtedly fed scores of people who, stuffing themselves silly on chocolate-covered apricots, realize they have no further need for the beef stew ready to be heated up at home.

Steps away we come upon the grand black-trimmed facade of the Oyster Bar Grill. Its vast interior, with an array of white tablecloths and high ceilings, reminds us of Parisian cafes and Toulouse Lautrec, and absinthe-sipping women with cleavages plunging even lower than the necklines of today.

Ahead is the red-and-black trimmed Deon’s, originally Papa’s Pizza and, a century before that, an antique A & P still commemorated with a mosaic outside the door. Deon’s is considered pricey by us po’ winter folk, but keep an eye out for occasional specials notated on the blackboard outdoors, entrees priced as low as $14.95.

Across the street is the blessed Slice of Life, opened 2002-ish, the first reasonably priced cafe on the avenue to add fresh basil to tomatoes and to mix Asian-accented salmon with an herbed mix of field greens. Between Raymond Schilcher’s original exciting Oyster Bar in the 1990s and Slice at the turn of the millennium, Oak Bluffs re-entered the ranks of upscale seaside resort towns (it had only taken 100-plus years to regain the title.)

Sharky’s Cantina has added a small city/bright lights atmosphere to Circuit, Linda Jean’s offers the best comfort food in North America, always has, and Seasons contributes to our new year-round festival atmosphere. Down the street at the famous Ritz, Thai cuisine has been added to the menu of beer and cocktails, so head on down.

Over to the east in Post Office Square you have Offshore Ale, whose Monday night two-for-one dinners gets ’em lined up in the street. The candlelit boite Park Corner Bistro has been romancing couples for years now. Back in the early 2000s my son Charlie and his college girlfriend, Olga Musatovova, celebrated monthly anniversaries there. To illustrate how well that worked out, last Saturday Charlie attended Olga’s wedding to some nice fellow in Middlebury, Conn. Ah love, ah romantic cafes.

The new Ocean Club stands at the foot of Circuit, with cotton candy waiting after the fine dining.

And a quick fond nod to the still-truckin’ restaurants off the avenue, the cozy and fabulous Ocean View and the Lookout smack in the teeth of Vineyard Sound, long may you both carry on . . .

The Oak Bluffs Library Friends are hosting their annual Holiday Open House on Friday, Dec. 10, from 1 to 4 p.m. The event will take place in the community meeting room, and there’ll be music and refreshments, plus kids’ activities with the new children’s librarian, Sondra Murphy. Santa will arrive at three o’clock sharp, looking plump and giggly.

By God, this town has friends: The Friends of Oak Bluffs are now offering cards and prints of the Ocean Park print “Peace on Earth.” Buy them at the Secret Garden and the OB public library.

At said library, a big bash is on offer, a Deathly Hallows Movie Premier Party on Thursday, Dec. 2 from 6 to 8 p.m. The party will include a Harry Potter trivia contest, costumes and prizes and wizard food (one must attend for the sheer marvel of discovering what on earth wizard food could be!)